Hitachi vs. JT Marvelous ... Great 5-setter

Total Crap stream, of course. Hitachi took the first two sets. JT played the Ugly Euro card in the end and emerged victorious. Brankica is such a sweetheart. Misaki Tanaka gave her a particularly good set, and after killing it with prejudice, Brankica walks over and gives Misaki a forehead to forehead kiss. Never see a Japanese player do that. I wanna give Brankica a kiss.

[Update] This was a really good game. Long rallies, some crushing blows. I actually re-watched it--crap stream and all! Hitachi was up 2-0 and then 23-20 in the third set. Fifth set tied at 14-14. Doesn't get any better than that. Watanabe didn't play for Hitachi, must be injured? The tall mom-looking Kurihara impressed. Brankica was given too many swings. These Euro Defensive Liabilities don't deserve it. If I didn't like her most of the time it would p!ss me off.

I may switch allegiance this year to JT Marvelous. They look scrappy good. I think things will come down to them and Hisamitsu--who have not only the most players with NT experience, they have a freaking NT starting lineup (minus setter and libero--who do have NT playtime on their resumes). Add to that the Japan Killer, Foluke Akinradewo, one of my favorite players, and things really just aren't fair. Foluke's going to have a lot of fun this season.

NEC can't compete without Akari Oumi on the floor. I think it's going to come down to how well a couple youngsters perform: #13 Misaki Yamauchi, and #16 Shiori Aratani. One of them needs to have a breakout season. #12 Nanami Hirose, another youngin', seems only capable of being dependable, at best. NEC is going to need some magic to win.

JT was my favorite last season and now with Mihajlovic I will root for them ever more .

The first game was great, I like that in the beginning the setter was setting evenly without overwhelming Mihajlovic, but after loosing sets that had to change a little bit. I just wish they would play her as OH and let her pass, their pass was not good and if they pass like that again then just let Mihajlovic pass.

I think this weekend they play Friday and Saturday, and JT will face Hisamtisu on Friday, this should be a good one. Toray seams weak and they need a better foreigner, they would do better with a strong OPP, same goes for the Rockets, I wish they kept Nikolova, but they should have signed someone else such as Bjelica/Brakocevic. There`s rumors that Sheilla Castro might play in Japan, I hope that is true as she would strengthen up any team.

I'm enjoying Akinradewo with Hisamitsu. She fits like a piece of the puzzle more than other hired guns playing in Japan. I hope it's a good game tonight. I got (the announce of upcoming) streams here and here:
Volleyball CupVolleyBall Is My Passion

Tonight it was a close one for JT, after winning the first 2 sets I just knew they would run out of gas and we would go for a 5set. After 2 sets Mihajlovic really could not score anymore as they were digging all her balls. Like I said before JT`s pass has not been good, tonight 4# Kitsui made so many passing errs, if she will pass like this then is better to just play Mihajlovic as OH, and I do think she plays better as OH than OPP. It was a good game. Hisamitsu will be even stronger when Nagaoka comes back.

I don't know how to see what you're seeing yet regarding the passing problems. I did see a bunch of balls bouncing off Mihajlovic in zone 6. You have to be extra quick in that position. But I think you're talking about serve/receive passing.

Looked like #6 Kanasuga had a good game for JT. Mizuki Tanaka didn't play for some reason and they did okay. Kitsui is weak sauce. If they rely on Mihajlovic to win games they're going to lose some. That's the way that kind of ball playing goes. There were lots of good rallies and Japanese volleyball anyway. I enjoyed the game. Hisamitsu Springs is a solid, wide team. Still loving Akinradewo. She's a nice compliment. Nomoto continues to impress, too.

I don't know how to see what you're seeing yet regarding the passing problems. I did see a bunch of balls bouncing off Mihajlovic in zone 6. You have to be extra quick in that position. But I think you're talking about serve/receive passing.

Looked like #6 Kanasuga had a good game for JT. Mizuki Tanaka didn't play for some reason and they did okay. Kitsui is weak sauce. If they rely on Mihajlovic to win games they're going to lose some. That's the way that kind of ball playing goes. There were lots of good rallies and Japanese volleyball anyway. I enjoyed the game. Hisamitsu Springs is a solid, wide team. Still loving Akinradewo. She's a nice compliment. Nomoto continues to impress, too.

4# Kitsui got aced a lot and had a lot of overpasses, that is what I don`t like and that is what getting JT in a lot of trouble. And another thing that I`m not sure if I like or not, but is the backrows sets for Mihajlovic, she had some great spikes from back there, but some of the sets were not good, they should set her back there only when the pass is good and the set will be good. I checked the stats and I can`t really read it cuz the translator mix things up a little but I see that MIhajlovic got 68 swings, that is a lot even for a 5set. I don`t like that, I don`t want her getting injured

But I do like how the setter is trying to run their middles on the slide. Hopefully that connection will improve and she can start using that more often instead on relaying only on Mihajlovic.

I need to start watching the serve/receive more closely. I think, because the streams are so bad I can't easily tell who is receiving, I just miss it. Isn't Tanaka usually JT's main receiver?

Mihajlovic did have some good kills from the back. That was a highlight. I don't want to see her injured either, tho. Or tired. She has a tendency to p00p out from time to time.

Speaking of setters running to middles ... I watched the NEC game and one of the backup setters played instead of Yamaguchi and did well. And by "well" I mean she had a good connection with Ohno for a lot of quick smashes (not really slides, tho). NEC doesn't seem focused, as a team, yet. I'm satisfied with Aratani (OH/MB), okay with Hirose, but #13 Misaki Yamauchi is a little troubling. If NEC is going to win much, Yamauchi is going to have to make me like her. Hasn't happened yet, but were only two games in lol. Koga and Yanagita are only Sleepy Sisters at this point.

Are there no English Stats available on the web? I tried looking at the translated ones from the V/League site. What a pain in the buttocks. Did brahmin have some insider place to get the ones he posted last year?

Man, I would pay--a little bit of--money for decent streams. The games are multi-camera produced so they must exist. Why won't someone in Japan show the kind of love Thailand fans show by uploading dozens of 1080 HD videos of every match they play

I found this on the V-League website. "Broadcast Schedule". There`s a bunch of links of the channels and I clicked at one of them but their service is not available in the US, if you want you should check all them out and see if any of them are available in the US.

Tanaka is a receiver, but she receives equally with Kitsui but Kitsui is weaker and teams are of course targeting her, but she did well last season, hopefully she will improve soon.

I have watched only JT`s game so far, and it is nice they have been playing the first game of the night starting at 8pm our time, but tonight they will play the 2nd game starting later. But I will check it out Ageo`s game because I like and want to see Tominaga playing.

I don`t think there`s English stats available, Brahmin mentioned he knows some Japanese I guess that`s how he is able to do it. He said he will be posting some recaps on MobVolleyball https://volleymob.com/

I wish Myashita and Ebata were playing in the first division. And I can`t wait for Watanabe to get back.

Did you know Uchiseto is playing in Italy 2nd Division? She`s played only 3 games so far, she kind doing well, first game she scored 16 points, 2nd 6, and 3rd 16 again. But I don`t think there`s any streaming for them.

See the stream we get from the Japanese is not great, but at least they stream/broadcast all games, in other league not all games are either streamed/broadcast and this includes big leagues like Brazil and Turkey.